Teamwork and a commitment to excellence help Boca West Country Club keep a quartet of championship golf courses in top form.
The list of accolades that Boca West Country Club in Boca Raton, Fla., has garnered is nearly as long as its Palmer I golf course plays from the tips.
Recognized as a Platinum Club of America 5-Star Private Club in 1997, the property has held that status ever since. Boca West has been recognized as the #2 country club in America, the nation’s #1 private residential country club and the #1 private club in Florida. In addition, Boca West ranked 16th on 2015’s list of Top 100 Platinum Clubs of the World.
Golf Scorecard:Boca West Country Club, Inc.Website: www.bocawestcc.org |
Of course, these achievements are not surprising for a property that has an icon of the club industry at its helm. President and General Manager Jay DiPietro, CCM, has been at Boca West for 30 years, but he is well aware that he is not alone in his quest to make the property the best it can be. He relies on his team to keep operations running smoothly, and he looks for experts in their field who will buy into his member-pleasing philosophy.
“All my people have to be together. They need to respect and help each other and work well together,” says DiPietro. “No one can interfere with them but me.”
Winning Formula
While Boca West CC offers its members a number of amenities, golf is “the most important thing we have here,” says Director of Golf Brad Luken.
The property is home to four championship golf courses that collectively reflect the design talents of Arnold Palmer, Jim Fazio and Pete Dye. Each course offers a distinct style of play to golfers of all levels. And while the task of maintaining four different courses 365 days a year could be daunting for some staffs, the Boca West course and grounds department rises to the challenge.
Each course operates independently with its own staff and equipment, and Director of Golf Course and Landscape Maintenance Wesley Dinsmoor says organization is the key to their success. “We have to get our work done around the members, without getting in their way,” he adds.
And that formula applies to each of the golf courses, regardless of their defining characteristics.
Palmer I, which opened in 1997, features wide fairways and large greens. The longest of the four courses, it incorporates seven sets of tees with yardages from 4,300 to 7,200, so that golfers of any handicap can play it.
Palmer III, constructed and opened in 1999, is a shotmaker’s course. The course is tighter than the others at Boca West, because it runs through all of the villages on that quadrant of the property. The layout includes a mix of short and long holes, as well as frequent water hazards. “It’s not long, but it has a lot of different options to play,” notes Luken.
On both Palmer designs, the grounds crew maintains TifGrand Bermuda on the approaches, SeaIsle1 Seashore Paspalum on the tees and fairways, and 419 Bermuda in the rough.
Designed in 2005, Fazio II has wide fairways, scenic holes with undulating greens and immense, focal-point waterfalls that spill over sculpted stones at the ninth and 18th greens. Calling it the prettiest of the four courses, Luken states, “If anyone is bringing guests here, they take them to this course because of the vistas, views and look.”
The Dye IV course, one of the last Dye-designed courses in Florida, was built in 2006. Illustrating the architect’s reputation for creating challenging courses for thinkers, the layout features varied bunker styles, risky shots and complex greens. Its SeaIsle1 Seashore Paspalum turf is ideal for the climate in the Sunshine State, and the grass encourages golfers to get aggressive with chip and wedge shots.
Superintendent Profile: Wesley DinsmoorTitle: Director of Golf Course and Landscape Maintenance |
The greens on all four golf courses are TifEagle Bermuda, while all other grass on Fazio II and Dye IV is SeaIsle1 Seashore Paspalum. Keeping the greens consistent, especially in comparison to each other, is one of the maintenance department’s most important duties, notes Dinsmoor.
The maintenance staff also takes care of a driving range with more than 50 hitting bays and a 10,000-sq. ft. putting green and short-game area. These areas are covered with Celebration Bermudagrass and some paspalum.
Prepared for All Types
The golf courses’ various grasses influence the property’s maintenance inputs. SeaIsle1, which has a high salt-water tolerance, is ideal for golf course fairways, tees and rough. The grass handles a wide range of soil pH levels, has low fertilization and pesticide requirements, and has a darker green color than Bermudagrass. In addition, SeaIsle1 typically grows well when watered from recycled or effluent sources.
That’s important because about six months ago, Boca West entered an agreement with the city of Boca Raton to receive treated irrigation wastewater for the next 20 years, and the club has been purchasing reclaimed water from the city since then.
In 2014, the Boca Raton city council adopted an ordinance that created a mandatory reclaimed water zone within the city’s utility service area, which includes the Boca West CC property. The ordinance requires all golf courses within the mandatory reclaimed water zone to connect to the city’s reclaimed water system and use effluent water.
“If we’re ever in a drought situation, we can avoid having our water allotment reduced for the most part,” Luken states.
According to Luken, it was a 15-year process before the city could supply Boca West with sufficient water quantities and get pipes to the property. The reclaimed water is diluted enough to prevent spikes in salt levels, he adds. Although the property has had no problems so far, he notes, the reclaimed water is costly, and it could affect the 419 Bermudagrass and the TifEagle over time.
The TifEagle greens can handle aggressive maintenance inputs such as minimal irrigation, reduced mowing heights and increased topdressing. This turf variety also holds up well under drought conditions, has strong disease resistance, and has the capability to regrow rapidly after mechanical injury.
“We try to maintain the different varieties in the same way as much as possible, for the ease of our operation,” says Dinsmoor.
The turf varieties have similar fertilizer and water needs, he reports, but maintenance staff members have to consider variables such as soil needs when caring for the grass. However, different maintenance practices are done on the golf courses at different times of the year, and the individual courses can require different mowing heights and different chemicals as well.
“We’re trying to maintain our golf courses in the conditions that members demand, without them ever seeing a piece of equipment,” Luken reports.
Playability by Design
Water and soil testing are an important component of Boca West’s maintenance practices as well. To see what the turf lacks and what it needs, the grounds crews conduct tissue tests weekly and soil tests monthly. They replace what is needed in the plant based on the results of the tissue sample tests. Grounds crew members also use moisture meters and soil probes, to ensure that they are giving the plant only what it needs.
The use of reclaimed water is one of the reasons that Boca West CC, which irrigated strictly out of its lakes before the agreement with the city went into effect, conducts water tests as frequently as it does. The property has also been testing the water in its lakes for the last two or three years, so the staff can compare water samples over time. According to Luken, it will take time before the property is pumping a majority of effluent water.
Boca West CC, which has been doing some type of golf course construction or reconstruction since 1997, relies on Mother Nature to contribute to its maintenance practices as well. The property built littoral shelves with water-growing flowers in the lake system, to mitigate the effects of maintenance inputs and construction.
Littoral shelves act as a buffer to filter out and reduce nutrients entering the lakes. They also stabilize the shoreline and minimize the erosion and sediment that can enter the water. These plants also consume nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, which reduce the nutrient load that can reach algae and other nuisance vegetation in the water.
“We always have two golf courses in perfect condition,” notes Luken. “That’s one of the advantages of having four golf courses and what makes us what we are. Members don’t want to hear that the golf course is closed, and they shouldn’t have to hear that.”
Maintenance inputs are not the only aspects that influence the conditioning and playability of a golf course, however. Playability starts with the architect, Luken believes, and the stellar list of architects with their names on Boca West’s layouts drive that point home. Forty years ago, Luken notes, architects designed hard golf courses with one set of men’s and ladies’ tees, but now they understand that they’re building for golfers with a wide range of abilities.
The golf courses at Boca West have seven different tees, including three different sets of ladies’ tees. “As people age, they just move forward, so their enjoyment of the game stays the same,” says Luken.
The Boca West staff also takes environmental stewardship, and all of the responsibilities that come with it, seriously. Grounds crew members are careful not to spray chemicals when it’s too windy, and they don’t make chemical applications when rain is in the forecast, ensuring that the products won’t leach into the lake system. “We just make sure we are in compliance with every code,” says Luken.
Separate But Equal
Because of the sheer scope of Boca West CC’s operation, the maintenance department is carefully choreographed to get the most out of its manpower—and to make sure golfers have a memorable experience.
The property has four superintendents, one for each golf course. Each course also has its own mechanics department with specialized positions such as a reel technician. A landscape superintendent oversees high-profile areas of the courses, and a tree crew trims trees on all four courses and around the clubhouse.
“One of the biggest things we have to do here is work as a team,” says Dinsmoor. “We all work under one large-scale agronomic plan.”
Depending on the circumstances, the golf courses sometimes share staff and equipment. For example, they will combine forces to complete an extensive chemical application or a big project. However, Dinsmoor adds, “On a day-to-day basis, everything is kept on its own golf course.”
The maintenance staffs also share information with each other so that the four golf courses can be maintained as consistently as possible. “We do the best we can to put forth the best product we can,” reports Dinsmoor. While the golf courses don’t compete with each other, he continues, they certainly push each other to offer their golfers the best possible conditions.
And the managerial staff works together as well as the golf course staffs. During his 35-year tenure at the property, Luken says, “All the walls between all the departments have come down. We have a core group of nine managers who have been here for a long time, and we all feel like we have a stake in the outcome. We all have the same goal, and everybody comes in knowing that you’re joining a team.”
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